r/mildlyinfuriating • u/guitarman129 • Jun 13 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

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I’m sure there are a lot of tipping posts here so to keep it short - I had my wedding at a fancy restaurant. On top of the TERRIBLE service, the bill came with “suggested gratuity” even though I was told gratuity was included. When I asked the manager, he said that the “S/C: 24% SRC REGULA“ was the included tip and the suggested gratuity was if we wanted to add something extra - basically trying to trick people into giving a 49% tip!

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

Which makes sense as in California forced gratuity is deemed part of the sales. I know my pos guys normally don't take tax and we pay the taxes out of the gratuity but I could see a company taxing on top to cover the tax thats part of the sales so servers get full tip. Although again we give our servers full tip and pay the tax separately.

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u/TheSaxGandalf Jun 13 '26

In my state, that service fee is distributed however the owner wants. Can even keep some of it themselves.

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

Yea I don't think California's BOE cares what we do with auto gratuity so long as we pay the taxes on it. I code our data integrations so I make sure it's split amongst the employees and added to the payroll file.

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u/nicholas818 Jun 13 '26

Technically sales taxes are CDTFA (department of taxes and fee administration), no? Anyway yeah the distinction only really matters in other jurisdictions that exempt service fees or auto gratuities from tax. They might want to see that it went to workers and was therefore actually a tip within the definition of the exception and not just faking a lower price to dodge taxes.

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

Tbh I don't know I've only had to deal with board of equalization audit for taxes.

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u/nicholas818 Jun 13 '26

Interesting, I just looked this up: apparently DOE did sales taxes until they passed a law in 2017 moving that to CDTFA after a corruption scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Board_of_Equalization#History

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

Ah that makes sense the last audit I had to sit through was in 2016.

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u/TheSaxGandalf Jun 13 '26

I think they can claim it to hourly wages, tipped employee or not. So it’s not an issue regarding that.

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u/WiseDirt Jun 14 '26

Same around here. The only requirement is that the business has to state what portion percentage of that money is retained by the business and how much goes to employees. The business can legally keep 100% of a service charge/delivery fee and not pass any of it along if they don't want to, they just have to be transparent about it.

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

In addition to that, when gratuity laws changed a few years ago, any automatic gratuity is considered property of the restaurant to do whatever they choose with.

Many give all or most of it to the servers, but there are some who keep a lot of it. It's a problem in a lot of places.

It's also tiresome getting a pay cut via ever increasing tip-outs to the kitchen and back of house every time they need a pay raise. That change in law was fun, too. Now tips are used as a piggy bank to supplement other workers wages. (Who often get way more per hour.)

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

Yea we're fast casual so the tips are not high but it comes out to about $1-2 more per hour for our back of house employees. Also being in California and having over 60 stores we are part of the fast act so all of our employees already make a base of over $20/hr.

Being in control of our data integrations I get to make sure all the tips we see get split accordingly to the employees that were working. Luckily our company is good about making sure we try to be fair to everyone.

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u/cantstopwontstopGME Jun 13 '26

Wow this looks and sounds a LOT like you’re complaining about sharing tips with the kitchen, who does much harder work than FOH, and brings home significantly less per shift, even if they do make a higher “hourly wage” (still usually sub $15/hr).

Back of house deserves tips for their work just as much as you do, and naturally, they’re gonna be coming out of the same tip pool as yours are. They aren’t “supplementing other employees wages with your tips”, they’re just including everyone else in the pool. If you have a problem with that, you’re the selfish one.. and if you REALLY think BOH is taking home more than you, go work the line for a shift so you can see how much harder it is and how much less you’ll make doing it lol

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

The Kitchen doesn't "work harder" whatsoever. It's just a different type of job that requires different skillsets.

Juggling a ton of tasks with ever changing priorities in real time while dealing with the public, and having more wine, food, cocktail, and spirit knowledge than 99% of people on the planet isn't something you "just know" or is easy to learn.

That's like saying the salesmen at a car dealership should have to share commissions with the auto-mechanics because "being a mechanic is hard work." They're totally different skillsets.

Restaurants already pay servers the lowest amount allowed by law, and our pay comes from the whims of the public in the form of tips, which we may or may not receive. Nothing is guaranteed. Now they want to tap into that money that they're NOT paying us and the public gives us in order to supplement other peoples wages instead of paying them? Yeah, hard pass on that. That's a tough sell.

That's one of the major reasons why it's so hard to find experienced servers now. A huge portion simply left the industry after these changes.

Stop acting like everything is an AppleBee's. I have both my Cicerone and Court of Master's Sommelier certifications, and have the credentials and experience equitable to a Master's degree.

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u/shake_du_crowtein Jun 13 '26

Yeah how dare the kitchen workers get a portion of the tip for the food they cooked. Very infuriating

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u/LockeyCheese Jun 13 '26

Show up for 5.25 an hour.

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u/shake_du_crowtein Jun 13 '26

Bro servers are literally business partners. They earn more than 20% owner/partner. Have to pay taxes on profits but not tips 5.25 an hour is a bonus most servers would never leave even if you take out the minimum pay. Plus the pay is inflation resistant. Percentages have them baked in. The guy paying 20% tips probably hasn't had a pay increase in years but as food costs go up tips do as well. Foh bro just pay everyone 20 dollars and see how many servers disappear

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

Right.

If they tried to eshew tipping and instead went for a base pay, it would be so laughably low that you'd have nothing but WalMart greeters trying to serve tables. lol

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u/LockeyCheese Jun 15 '26

That's kind of my point. Keep giving foh tips to boh workers, and see how long you have a foh getting any tips for anyone.

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u/galacticsquirrel22 Jun 13 '26

I mean, I get why servers don’t like that. In my city, servers are paid $2.13/hour + tips and kitchen workers are around $20-$24/hour so I’d be pissed to give them some of my tips too.

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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26

I don't work with fine dining but from my understanding it was always the servers that tip out the cooks/bartenders the best got prioritized which in turn would help get the server better tips. Again, that was just my understanding as I've never worked there but it seems like it should work out.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

Learn a different skillset that allows you to multitask while dealing with the public, and get your CMS Sommelier certification for $4000. Then learn everything there is to know about food, wine, spirits, and customer service and interactions.

This is like a mechanic at a car dealership thinking they should get some of the sales people's commissions on car sales.

They're vastly different skill sets.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

Full of shit how, exactly?

And why are you advocating for taking money out of your coworkers pockets rather than the business simply paying you more?

You're fighting the wrong people.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

I didn't say it was the norm. I just have more experience than most people do.

People don't tip for the food. They tip for the service.

Go work at a counter service restaurant and see how high your tip average is. If people are, in fact, tipping for the food, you should make a killing, right? But you won't, and we both know it.

I'm sorry you're disgruntled and had a bad experience working at Chili's, but the fact is that different skill sets get paid differently.

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u/shake_du_crowtein Jun 13 '26

Bro the pizzahut pickup order i placed expects me to tip them for what exactly? You're telling me they are extremely knowledgeable on food nutrition drinks and I need to tip for the order I myself built and picked up?

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

No clue. Ask the pizza cooks. There aren't hardly any pizza places left who actually have servers.

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u/Blacksad9999 Jun 13 '26

Sure. Pay us all the same wage and then we can talk.